PressEthic

For a while there, it seemed like the thousands of injured -- and millions of homeless -- victims of the South Asian earthquake had just disappeared. Evaporated. Poof! Sitting here on the other side of the world, I had to search hard for news in the mainstream media. Sure, coverage of the first two weeks was stellar. Heart-rending, gut-wrenching stories of death and devastation. And then suddenly, it was like the world forgot. After all, there was Judy Miller and Scooter Libby, Supreme Court nominations and all that good stuff to cover. That's not to say there was no news about the earthquake victims over the last month -- just that it was treated as relatively unimportant, buried in the depths of the newspapers.

Beena Sarwar, OpEd and features editor of The News International in Pakistan, had this to say about the coverage (or lack thereof):

"Donor fatigue" doesn't explain the relative silence of media that normally thrive on disaster. The few reports trickling in from the earthquake zone remain blips in the overall media radar. Despite stunning photographs and excellent reporting on how precarious life is without tents and aid, these reports are mostly buried in the inside pages. The contrast with the sustained and prominent reporting on the Asian tsunami and hurricane Katrina is stark.

Do western media lack interest because the earthquake struck an unfamiliar, far-off area?

I am not entirely sure if it is disinterest due to distance -- especially because, as Sarwar pointed out herself, the Asian tsunami was covered in depth and over a significant period of time. But if that's not it, I don't really have another answer. Anyone?

Keeping the earthquake in focus in the media has been especially needed because of the sheer number of people who could die just due to the approaching winter, stranded as they are without adequate food, shelter or access to aid.

SAQUAKE.ORG, "an alliance of professional and non-profit organizations working jointly on relief efforts in the aftermath of the South Asian earthquake," whose members feel that coverage has been meagre, have even been petitioning Oprah to do a show on the earthquake, knowing that the talk show queen is capable of raising millions of dollars in a matter of hours (apparently, you can submit ideas to Oprah's producers here!)

And Salman Rushdie wrote quite an impassioned...well, for lack of a better word, plea on behalf of the victims who still need the world's help. I am not a big fan of the writer, but I have to admit he pulled at my heart strings with this one.

At any rate, it was somewhat heartening to see that it hasn't all been for nothing -- the quake is making news in this part of the world again (finally) because of the donor conference in Islamabad, where about $5.8 million has been pledged. But this shouldn't be an excuse for the media to go back into its shell. Until things are stabalized (as far as they can be) in the region, the spotlight should not be turned off.

[On a side note, while I do feel like the media coverage here has been inadequate, I also think that those who continued to do human interest stories from the earthquake-affected region did a really great job of bringing out the desperation of the situation. It's too bad they weren't given as much play as they should have got.]